The NFL is in such deep shit that it gives a new meaning to Super Bowl. Fired Dolphins coach Brian Flores is suing the entire league for a pattern of racism in hiring, but his supporting allegations seem to go beyond that. His charge that owners run the league "like a plantation" only articulates in a very public way what some sportswriters and others have been saying for years, though sometimes more obliquely.
Meanwhile, the Washington football club and its current management have not gotten out from under their troubles with a less than popular new team name. As one article recently summarized the situation, the league is in general disrepute, but it rakes in so much cash and the owners are so absurdly wealthy that they feel invulnerable.
One reason is the strange centrality in American culture of the Super Bowl. Why is it a national holiday and obsession on a par with Christmas--or exceeding it? It's not often even a very good football game. But it's self-generating hype at this point, with TV heavily invested. And given the pandemic and the perilous state of politics, we are desperate for distraction. We'll ignore insurrection, mob insanity, war, death, racism, anything. Let's wallow and rate the multi-million dollar commercials.
And so we're into it again. But is this year's winner even in doubt? The LA Rams are a very wealthy team that spent heavily on the best veteran players it could buy precisely to be in this game, in its own stadium. It's a team that not only feels it belongs in the Super Bowl, it feels entitled. Meanwhile, the Bengals are the unlikely opponent, that nobody predicted would be there, and some refuse to even believe they are.
So it's a great setup for a David and Goliath story, with the All American boy Joe Burrow as the miracle making hero. He is certainly a highly gifted quarterback with an almost magical quality. His problem is that in order to throw a pass, he has to be standing up. The Rams have an overpowering defensive line and pass rush, the Bengals a not very good offensive line. Maybe Burrow spends just enough time not flat on his back to squeak out a victory in a low-scoring game, as he has before in these playoffs. But it seems much more likely that the best possible outcome is that he survives this game without serious injury. The Rams may not score much either, so I expect this to be a ugly game.
The retirement of Tom Brady and the Steelers' Big Ben symbolize the changeover to Burrow and the other young quarterbacks that run a different kind of game. While not quite as thoroughly as Steph Curry changed NBA basketball, these exciting young quarterbacks are what could save the game on the field. But it's in the executive suites that the smelly problems persist.
It didn't take long for everybody to forget concussions and serious injuries that could be avoided with rule and equipment changes. That responsibility also belongs to the league leadership. But they don't really care. Nor does the sports media that feeds off the mayhem. They provide the deodorant. Besides, it's more difficult to get upset about violence in football when it's ominously clear that daily life in America is becoming more violent. While the bodies crashed in the LA stadium during the last game, a visiting fan was beaten and killed outside. It isn't just the NFL that's in deep shit these days.
